A Companion to Colonial America consists of twenty-three original essays by expert historians on the key issues and topics in American colonial history. Each essay surveys the scholarship and prevailing interpretations in these key areas, discussing the differing arguments and assessing their merits. In certain fields, such as politics and religion, the essays cover debates and approaches over the better part of the last century. More recent fields such as migration and gender have a narrower interpretive history, but receive the same comprehensive treatment. Essays on newly emerging fields such as ecology, and a closing summary essay look ahead to the future of Colonial American studies. The contributors are the best in their field and have collaborated to produce an invaluable reference work for American historians, students, and readers of American colonial history.